Belfast OutReach

By John Piper August 9, 1998 Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." Verse 16 says that "the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." Back on June 21 I argued that what this means is not that the gospel is God's power to convert people to faith (although that is indeed true!), but that it means the gospel is God's power to bring those who keep on believing to everlasting safety and joy in the presence of God. Our Ultimate Problem: The Wrath of God One of the things we did not make plain in that message was why we need salvation. Salvation from what? What's the problem? The answer in the book of Romans is resoundingly this: We need to be saved from the wrath of God. Look at Ro